Hernandez drowns Pereira on ground, earns TKO in lopsided UFC main event
It'll be tough to top rising middleweight Anthony Hernandez's win over Michel Pereira for beatdown of the year.
Hernandez dominated Pereira in Saturday's UFC Fight Night main event, winning via TKO at the 2:22 mark of the fifth round at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Hernandez was ahead on the scorecards by a wide margin entering the fifth - 40-35, 39-34, and 40-35 - with one judge giving him three straight 10-8 rounds. The victory earned Hernandez a $50,000 postfight bonus for Performance of the Night.
Hernandez and Pereira were ranked No. 13 and No. 14, respectively, in the middleweight division coming in.
"It's just what I expected," Hernandez said of his dominant win. "I had no nerves all week. Like I've been telling you guys, I'm ready for my belt and (am) out of my own way. Just give me whatever the f--k it takes. (UFC CEO) Dana (White), you've always given me tough fights. Give me someone that's gonna give me a title shot. I'm f-----g ready. I'll prove it to you."
Hernandez set a high pace and suffocated Pereira on the ground to come out of his first main event with a lopsided win. Pereira was exhausted by the second round and offered almost no offense between then and the end of the fight. Hernandez outstruck Pereira 152-24 in significant strikes and 219-29 in total strikes. He completed 10 of 29 takedown attempts.
Things were going Pereira's way in the first few moments of the fight. He hurt Hernandez with a kick to the body early in Round 1 and backed him up with a barrage of shots. Hernandez upped his offense and began putting pressure on Pereira in the second half of the round, and he won it on two of three judges' scorecards.
"He caught me," Hernandez said of the early adversity. "I was like, 'Oh, shit, this motherf----r is strong strong.'"
But Hernandez took over in Round 2 and didn't look back. Hernandez routinely got on top of Pereira, landed damaging blows, and hunted for submissions. And he faced less and less resistance from Pereira as the fight went on.
In the fifth round, Hernandez landed a series of elbows - moments after opening up a cut on Pereira's face - to finally force a stoppage from referee Herb Dean.
Hernandez is now riding the third-longest active winning streak in the middleweight division (six), behind champion Dricus Du Plessis (eight) and Caio Borralho (seven), according to UFC research analyst Michael Carroll. Hernandez, a 31-year-old who lives in California, hasn't lost a fight since facing Kevin Holland in 2020.
Pereira's eight-fight winning streak ended. The 31-year-old Brazilian had looked impressive as of late, winning his last three fights by first-round finish. This was Pereira's first defeat since a disqualification against Diego Sanchez in 2020.